ministerial formation

Dear Beloved Ordaining Congregations (and All Sentient Beings Present) at my Ordination Yesterday:

I am flush with gratitude. Each time I turned my face towards you, I beheld so so so many of you out there.  At first it felt like I was stealing glances at you.  I felt brazen.  Then I felt more courageous and eventually more confident. There you were: a full to brimming space, dear …

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Tribute to Stephen Philbrick on the Occasion of Twenty Years in Ministry

this is the original version of the abbreviated tribute I gave this morning West Cummington Church November 30, 2014 These days I do not much write poems. Instead, I write blogposts and blessings, sermons and lists of assignments to complete by semester’s end. In the time before I really knew Steve, after I had attended …

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A Blessing at the Start of a Ministerial Internship

For my new Teaching Parish Committee   We are artists, not evaluators…   Though there are tools that will be offered, carefully crafted grids for assessment and measurement, guidance for feedback and evaluation, do not be deceived: your task here is not technical.   Think guideposts, not guidelines. Think cairns, not cautions.   This is …

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From the Land of On-Call: A Day in the Life of a CPE Student

Twenty-four hours on-call. At the hospital. Not as long as one of my colleagues who this very same weekend is doing forty-eight (yes, two days straight ~ not to mention Monday through Friday on either side). This, apparently, is the life of the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) student. Some of my colleagues spread across the …

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